DescriptionRegardless, of whether we are face-to-face or working remote, teams are teams are teams. Over the last few decades team effectiveness research continues to validate core elements which teams need in order to thrive. The ingredients come from the research of professionals including: Katzenbach and Smith (The Wisdom of Teams), Hackman and Wageman (A Theory of Team Coaching) and others.

Part of great leadership in complexity is about distilling things down to their core. When it comes to teamwork it can be beneficial to get back to the basics. When I work with teams, I like to share with them the following six elements which I call the Six Factors of High Performing Teams. These are six things that teams need in order to excel.

​As you step into this week, as a team, take the pulse of where you are on a scale of 1 - 10 the first 3 areas needed for team effectiveness:

1. Shared purpose or mission (Your WHY)What is your purpose? Your mission? Why do you exist? Does everyone hold the same understanding? What does this mean practically for your work? What priorities does your purpose or mission naturally create?

2. Shared behavioral normsHow do you do things? What is acceptable and unacceptable on the team? What behaviors and habits exist? Which ones are supportive of exceptional performance? Which ones aren't?

3. Shared commitmentWhat are team members committed to? What will you get done, no matter what? Is there anything that needs to be dropped off the list?

ActivityWhere are we in each of the Six Factors? What requires attention?

For more on this topic check out:Teams365 #1145 – Team Leader Breakfast Series – Six Factors (Audio)Teams365 #1920- Team Development – Revisiting the Six Factors

Focus Question: Where are you needing to collaborate so that you can enhance the impact of your work?

DescriptionCollaboration in today’ business context can take a number of forms – from Joint Ventures, to Co-Facilitation, Collaboration and Co-Leading. What are the different partnerships you engage with?

Great partnerships don’t just happen. They are usually created with some intention. They are often planned.

It can be valuable to spend some time to plan your collaboration by asking:

What do you want to get out of the collaboration?

What skills do you bring?

How are you complimentary?

What’s really important as an outcome in this work?

What’s really important as a process in this work?

Where is it not a good idea to collaborate?

What will you do to provide feedback to each other?

ActivityIdentify the collaborations you are a part of right now? What conversations need to be had?

With your major tasks and projects for the next few months, what new partnerships and collaboration opportunities are needed? What requires attention?

Also refer to the Collaboration Download as part of Episode 7 as part of the Remote Pathways Podcast. Listen in on your favorite podcast player or at RemotePathways.com

For more on this topic check out:Teams365 #1152 - 5 Ingredients for Successful Team Leader Collaboration

DescriptionOur team culture (as I have written in other Teams365 posts) is WHO we are and HOW we do things. It consists of our norms, our Team Charter or Agreements on how we do things, what’s acceptable and what’s not. A large part of our work at Potentials Realized is in support of team development. We work with teams who are creating their team norms, and intentionally shaping their team culture.

Each team is unique in its team culture, and this may vary from organizational culture. Creating a strong remote team culture is critical, especially when people are part of multiple team cultures.

Our team culture is also shaped by our values. If we value quality, we will always make a point to review key pieces of communication before they go out the door. If we value experimentation, we may be very open as a team to things that don’t work as planned (note that I’m not even using the term failure).

Team culture also includes the visual and other elements which make us, us. This might be HOW we hold meetings, or the fact that we provide both positive and constructive feedback around new projects and initiatives. Visual elements might include a mascot or metaphors which help them team identify themselves. For example, a team may associate itself with a firecracker (being bold and making an impact) or a fire pit (bringing people together for collaboration and problem solving). What are the elements of your team culture which you want to make more pronounced or visible?​In a virtual or remote team, it can be key to focus in on being more explicit in taking time to articulate and share our team culture given that we may not be able to see it every day. It may be captured in our slides or stickers that are put on computers or notebooks. What structures do you want to use to make it visible?

ActivityWhat are the elements of your team culture? Think about the things that make your team unique. This might include HOW you meet. WHAT you prioritize. Any sayings or taglines you embrace.

Team culture also speaks to HOW you do things. What is acceptable on this team? What is not? What team agreements and norms do you have in place?

Consider the question this week "What are three adjectives to describe your team culture?".

What do these adjectives say about you? What you value? How is it reflected in your work?"

For more on this topic check out:Teams365 #1526 at Potentials Realized.com - Team Culture

Teams365 #2156 – Keeping Your Remote Team All On One Page at PotentialsRealized.com

In the remote space, creating trust, safety and connection across the team is critical to surfacing the issues which need to be addressed and allowing the team to bring their best work every day. When teams are remote, it’s very easy for issues to be left, and fester, becoming even greater issues quickly.

Here’s what I shared recently at the Teams365 blog about fostering an environment where people feel safe to speak up. Check out what I wrote in Teams365 2221:

“As we wind up with our last team essential of the month, I wanted to take us into an area which is critical for team success – the ability to speak up.

When a team feels connected and safe, they are more likely to speak up. The foundation of teamwork is that the fusion of many perspectives, insights and talents is better than one person thinking alone. With this philosophy in mind, it’s very likely that there will be divergent perspectives and insights that emerge from across the team. How do you create a context in which people feel that they can share what might be perceived as oppositional insights, without being shut down?

The ability to speak up was identified as a core component for helping teams excel by Amy Edmonson from Harvard. I regularly recommend her 2011 book on Teaming to Organizations, and she has recently followed up with a new book called The Fearless Organization. Take a look at this article.

From large to small invitations there can be many different ways we foster conversation across a team. This might include:

Dedicating time to brainstorming solutions/perspectives and alternatives to your most pressing opportunities and /or challenges. In the truest sense of brainstorming, we are welcoming ALL different ideas without shutting them down.

Ensuring that all voices are being heard. This can be done through participatory facilitation techniques. Rather than just going around a table to verbally share ideas, consider giving everyone a set of index cards or post it notes to share their top ideas. Gather these and post them or go through them one at a time.

Talk about why it’s important to bring alternative perspectives to the table.

Watch your language – how is language shaping an “invitation” to connect and collaborate. Is more ME/YOU language being used or WE?

What other barriers are being created around inviting everyone’s voice to the table?”

ActivityHave a discussion this week around what Speaking Up can look like in your team or organization, and what the value of it is.

For more on this topic check out:Speak Up, Show Up and Stand Out – Loretta MalandroTeaming – Amy Edmondson

DescriptionTime is one thing we cannot manufacture more of. It’s a non-renewable resource. Once we spend it, we can’t get it back.​Personal productivity and time management is a key issue for most remote workers, regardless if we run a business or work for someone else. In fact, it’s a primary reason why I published PlanDoTrack, which is specifically geared at supporting remote and virtual workers around productivity. The first part of the book is a workbook, helping you get focused in on you (your strengths, styles, approaches, networks) as a remote worker. The last half is dedicated to providing you with a planner – with a focus on annual, quarterly and weekly planning. My findings have been over the years that most remote workers are well covered with daily planning tools, but don’t always focus on weekly, quarterly or annual tools.

Activity

Use the following questions to reflect on what’s important for you around productivity and time management right now:

1. What's helping me/us get results? (Get specific around this - what key activities or practices are helping?)

2. What's not helping me/us to get results?

3. Where is the bulk of your time being spent? If you are not yet tracking some of your key metrics and schedule, now is a great time to do so. It can be as simple as noting it in your calendar, or picking up a resource like my upcoming Plan.Do.Track workbook and planner.

4. What are noticing about key periods that are unproductive?

5. Where might you be spending too much time in meetings? What influence can you have on tightening up meeting results and focus OR exploring who needs to be at meetings?

6. What are you doing to renew?

7. From a scheduling perspective, are you building in enough blocks to get tasks completed right away before you have to switch your focus?

8. What other changes would you like to make to your schedule, to do more of what's working, and to do less of what's not?

For more on this topic check out:Section 4 of the PlanDoTrack Workbook and Planner for more on time management and tools.

Focus Question: What can you do to avoid the pitfalls of matrix teams?

DescriptionConflict may also be more prevalent. Think about these different conflicts which are present in matrix relationships. (Mentioned first in Teams365 #601: https://www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams365-601-potential-sources-of-conflict-in-matrix-teams)

Here's a list of potential sources of conflict in matrix teams include:

Conflict between local level priorities and global or project priorities

Conflict between direction and style of local leader and matrix leader

Focus Question: What matrix teams are you part of? What makes it work?

DescriptionFour Keys for Making the Matrix Work:

1. Create Shared Expectations. Given that your staff member will be managed by two or more sets of people, creating shared expectations among the three (or more) of you is key. Who do you report to on what? What does success look like to all the parties involved? What are everyone's various expectations and priorities? How do these align? Conflict?

2.Clarity. Clarity around roles and responsibilities, reporting relationships, goals and who does what is key in successful matrix management. Taking time to be extremely clear is key to success. Having a plan and process in place to address lack of clarity issues can also be important.

3. Checking assumptions. Given that matrix management relationships often occur at a distance, it is important to check the various assumptions. Assumptions about priorities, flow, pace, quality may be a starting point for discussion on a regular basis.

4. Frequent touch points and adjustments. Regular and frequent touch points amongst the three parties can be very useful, along with an understanding that regular adjustments will need to be made. In my former world of work, I usually tried to aim for quarterly or semi-annual three-way meetings (both supervisors and employee). While this took some planning time, it was often identified as a critical success factor.Originally published as https://www.potentialsrealized.com/teams-365-blog/teams365-594-matrix-management-4-keys-to-making-it-work)

​Who do you have in your relationship web?

ActivityNote the conversations you want to have with those you are in matrix relationships with. When are you meeting as a group of three? What are the things you want to have discussion around?

DescriptionEarlier this year I did a series of calls entitled “No Person Is An Island”. If you pick up my 2017 book, Effective Virtual Conversations, you’ll see me use that term a number of times.

Business success is often linked to our relationships. And the saying “no person is an island” reflects that we operate in connection with others, even if we feel isolated as a remote worker.​If we are part of a team, it’s likely that we have a boss, peers, and even those we manage. We also may need to interface with both internal and external stakeholders on a regular basis.

Questions to consider:

Who do you have in your relationship web?

Who are the key partners you relate with on a regular basis?

What’s important about that relationship? What do they value? What are their priorities? What is important to communicate with them?

ActivityFor each key relationship, work through the questions listed here.

For more on this topic check out:Check out the Top 20 Activities in PlanDoTrack, as well as the Relationship Mapping Exercise.

DescriptionIn the remote space we may find ourselves buffeted by meetings at all times of the day. Are they the most effective? Get into the practice of asking yourselves the 8 Essential Meeting Questions in advance of each meeting.

Meetings may consume upwards of 40% of managers’ days and they are needed, especially in the remote space. What can we do to make sure they are effective?For many years now I’ve been sharing these five tips with those leaders, team members and facilitators I work with, who are looking to amp up their meeting muscles. These were originally published in Teams365 #960. Read it here.

Five quick tips for making meetings more effective include:​1. Be clear on the purpose of the meeting. Is a meeting the best way to handle this?

2. Be clear on who needs to be at the table. Does everyone need to be there for the full meeting? Who might be needed in order to provide information? Decisions? Authority? Make sure you know who will need to be there or else it may mean another meeting. Having everyone there all the time may actually slow the meeting down. At this point, you will want to start considering who needs to be there, when.

3. What is the outcome you desire? What are the 3-5 tangible takeaways you want from the meeting? This question will help to reinforce what the purpose is, and who really should be at the table.

4. What decisions have been made? What outcomes are expected, and what are the timelines? Who is responsible for doing this? Tracking it? Reporting on it? What will follow up look like? Being granular in this stage is key to success. Many times, it is glossed over. Be sure to leave sufficient time to summarize key decisions made, and implications of this.

5. Keep to time. Time management is an art form with effective meetings. Being too lax with time can lead to frustration and disengagement. If timing tends to fall off, assign someone a timekeeper role, and put your stronger facilitator in the chair seat to keep the meeting moving. Tangents don't always benefit meetings.The cost of NOT undertaking meetings is high. What’s the right balance for your team in terms of sharing information and also making them most efficient?

For more on this topic check out: Effective Virtual Conversations Chapter 9 – In Focus: Virtual Meetings of All Stripes

DescriptionSystems help us scale things. They are what helps us magnify our presence, even if we are a small company. Systems may link into automation to reduce the time spent on tasks that are not a “value add”.

In the remote space, systems also ensure consistency. This is critical if we are one of many people in a program. If I am offering something here in Toronto in a certain way, or with a certain promise, things are done the same way via my colleagues in another location.

In order to ensure systems don’t just become a “thing” we will want to ensure that we are also having a discussion around the values that underpin a system. So, for example, if we have a value of being “high touch” our systems for client onboarding may also reflect that. There may be personalization and a human touch behind that part of the work. What might be automated instead are some of the financial pieces of the work.

In the remote space there may be several systems we are leaning into every day. These could include:

Learning Systems – How are we providing learning beyond the human touch? Are we leveraging the best of current practice by incorporating Zoom calls which do get recorded if people can’t make them? Are we creating a Learning Management System where people can go to access information and on-demand learning modules?​Popular learning systems include Teachable, Kajabi, Thinkific to name a few. Corporations will have their own learning management systems.

Project Management Systems – Projects are at the heart of most small businesses. From courses we want to create to marketing initiatives, there are many different ways we can focus on scaling.

Popular project management systems include Trello, Asana, Monday.com.

Communication is at the heart of any remote team or business. What are you doing to ensure that you are leveraging all the communication elements you want? This may include: Chat based systems; video-based meeting platforms like Zoom; or voice related apps like WhatsApp and Voxerr (where you can leave a voice message), or LOOM (where you can leave a video message).

What are the systems you want to leverage so you can accelerate your work and take it to the next level?

​ActivityThink about these four areas of work – learning, project management, financial and communication. What new additions could you add to help amplify your efforts?

Author

The Remote Pathways blog follows many of the themes we explore in the Remote Pathways Podcast. This year (2020) we're proud to bring you a 52 week-series for you to follow along throughout the year. Posts are penned by co-host Jennifer Britton, an avid award-winning blogger for many years. Jennifer is the author of five books. Visit her author page on Amazon.Enjoy!